MUSKEGON – The West Michigan Ironmen have an iron-clad commitment to keeping arena football in Muskegon, and they’ve demonstrated that with their patience and perseverance.
On one hand, the Ironmen have all the tools they need to be a solid long-term franchise. They’ve been a strong organization with a solid fan and sponsor base for their entire history, and they put a very good team on the field every season.
The problem has been finding other quality teams from similar markets to form a sustainable league.
They played in the American Indoor Football League for their first two seasons. After that they competed in the Champions Indoor Football league, then the Midwest Professional Indoor League the past few seasons.
The past few years have been particularly difficult, because several other teams in their league were not financially or structurally sound, and some of them cancelled games at the last minute.
[1]Last year, for example, the Ironmen were supposed to host a team in a league playoff game, but the opponent cancelled, and that was the end of the season.
In the offseason the Ironmen worked with the owners of the Charlotte Thunder, another stable franchise, to establish a new league, the Professional Arena Football League, and they hoped to get it rolling this spring.
Unfortunately, several teams that were going to play had to drop out, and the new league is down to just three current teams, not enough to create a full league schedule with a championship format.
But the Ironmen are remaining true to their commitment to keep a team on the field this spring. They are planning an eight-game largely independent schedule, playing several teams from different leagues around the nation.
[2]The 2022 season will kick off on Saturday night at Mercy Health Arena with a game against Charlotte, and it should be a good one.
Both the Ironmen and Tbunder were undefeated last season, and should have played in the MPIL championship game, if the playoffs would have unfolded as planned.
Now the two arena football powers are finally going head-to-head, and Ironmen General Manager/Coach Nate Smith is excited about the matchup.
“We would have loved to play them last season,” Smith said. “It’s a good team and a good organization. We are fortunate that we get to play them this year.”
On April 16 the Ironmen will host the Central Illinois Thunder in a non-league contest. On April 23 they will travel to Charlotte for a rematch with the Thunder.
[3]There are also games tentatively scheduled for May 15 and June 4 against undetermined opponents. The Jersey Ballas, one of the teams that was supposed to be in the league this year, may be operational by then and could be one of the opponents, according to Smith.
The Ironmen were hoping for better results when they partnered with the management from Charlotte to form the new league, but it’s taking longer than they hoped to attract enough quality members.
Teams from Vermont, Alabama and Reading, Pennsylvania were initially set to join the league, then ran into problems along the way and aren’t ready to hit the field yet, for various reasons.
“We had a pretty strenuous vetting process (for accepting teams),” Smith said. “We turned several teams away. It’s hard to schedule a game and have it cancelled, and we wanted to avoid that.
“There are going to be some growing pains this year. Only a few teams are solid enough to play. We want to be with this league. It’s a long-term vision. We’re not going to be in the bigger leagues, with cities like Orlando or Las Vegas. We just don’t have the market for it. We’re trying to help build other mid-level market teams.
[4]“We want to get games in front of our fans, and we’re going to keep playing football. Either this new league is going to grow, or we’re going to make a move to another league. With our great sponsors, fans and players, there is a place for arena football in the Muskegon sports landscape.”
The truly amazing part is that the Ironmen have managed to keep a solid core of great players coming back to compete, season after season, despite the instability of the league and schedule situation.
Players like quarterback Alex Carder, running back Dakota Smith, linebacker Derek VandenBosch, receiver Keyondre Banks-Craig and several others remain the backbone of the team, and their presence guarantees that the Ironmen will put a solid product on the field every season.
The Ironmen have an all-time 27-13 record, with the same core of players leading the way since the inaugural season in 2016.
“We have good players – they are professionals,” Smith said. “It’s huge. Having quality character guys goes a long way. We have guys who will take pay cuts to help other players out. We have a great culture, and we’re very thankful.”
[5]Carder, who has been a standout quarterback for the Ironmen for all but one season of the team’s existence, says West Michigan is a hotbed of talented football players who just want to keep competing, and the Ironmen provide a quality opportunity to do that.
“I think it’s just solid ownership,” said Carder, who was a standout QB at Western Michigan University before joining the Ironmen. “Since our conception the team has always grown in a positive direction, and that’s been intertwined with the city of Muskegon coming back to life.”
Banks-Craig, in his third year with the Ironmen, said a lot of players would be eager to help the Ironmen organization do whatever is necessary to eventually join a stable league.
“We feel like we can compete with any of those guys in the higher leagues,” he said. “I would like to see us eventually move up and continue to showcase how good we are. If money is the thing, we can help raise it, whatever we have to do. We want to see if we can help out and do whatever we can to get into a higher league. I definitely want to do it.”